My daughter has today checked with a native Welsh speaker who confirmed
what Piers said. In her words, this complicated pattern of mutations is
one of the things that makes Welsh "awesome".
She is going native.
Cheers,
Nathan
Op Di, 10 september, 2013 16:47, schreef Chuck Norcutt:
> Thanks Piers. I don't think I could repeat the rules now but at least I
> have some basic understanding now of what's going on. It would be very
> interesting to know how it got that convoluted but I don't think I'll
> pursue that. :-)
>
> Chuck Norcutt
>
>
> On 9/10/2013 8:45 AM, Piers Hemy wrote:
>> How interesting! I had assumed it might be a relic of the dual number
>> (as
>> opposed to singular or plural) but it is not. Nor is it specific to
>> minutes
>> - try months and you will get the same result.
>>
>> It's akin to a spelling rule - see
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_numerals for the following
>> explanation:
>>
>> Nouns are [...] mutated following many numbers. [... The masculine and
>> feminine forms of the numeral two] both trigger the soft mutation (ll
>> and rh
>> included).
>>
>> And http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/fun/welsh/Lesson04.html illustrates that the
>> soft
>> mutation turns initial "m" into .... wait for it .... oh, you guessed!
>>
>> Piers
>>
>> PS Since when did a translator tell you all about a language? If they
>> did,
>> they would put themselves out of business.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Chuck Norcutt [mailto:chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
>> Sent: 10 September 2013 01:01
>> To: Olympus Camera Discussion
>> Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Cardiff and Carmarthen
>>
>> Thanks for the tour. My wife and I were in that area in the 80s in
>> pursuit
>> of some genealogical data from her mother's Welsh side. We weren't very
>> successful in that endeavor but did see a lot of very fine scenery...
>> but
>> not including most of what you showed us.
>>
>> But you've posed a language mystery. Perhaps someone who speaks Welsh
>> can
>> answer. If you read the sign here
>> <http://www.frozenlight.eu/cardiff082013/content/20130831-_DSF3952_large.htm
>> l>
>> and look at the estimated time for Canon y dref/Town centre by bike (at
>> upper left) you'll see the abbreviation for 2 minutes as "2 fun". But
>> estimates of more than 2 minutes all use the abbreviation "mun" rather
>> than
>> "fun". If I ask Google to translate 2 minutes I get 2 funud. If I ask
>> any
>> other number (including 1 and 3) I get munud rather than funud.
>>
>> So, what's unique about 2 minutes that it gets its own word for minute?
>> Something tells me the translator isn't telling me all about the
>> language.
>>
>> Chuck Norcutt
>>
>>
>> On 9/8/2013 3:32 AM, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>>> Finally finished processing my pictures from the week in Wales, and the
>> resulting gallery is here:
>>>
>>> http://www.frozenlight.eu/cardiff082013/
>>>
>>> Mostly from Cardiff Bay since that is where we were most of the time,
>> although there are also a couple from Cardiff centre and from the town
>> of
>> Carmarthen, 70 miles to the west. Cardiff Bay is the city's waterfront.
>> Like
>> in many other cities, it had become a seedy area during the 1970 and 80s
>> but
>> has been completely transformed in recent years.
>>>
>>> As always, comments and critique are welcome and appreciated.
>>>
>>> Nathan
>>>
>>> Nathan Wajsman
>>> Alicante, Spain
>>> http://www.frozenlight.eu
>>> http://www.greatpix.eu
>>> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
>>> Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
>>>
>>> YNWA
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> --
>> _________________________________________________________________
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>> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
>> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
>>
> --
> _________________________________________________________________
> Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
>
>
>
--
Nathan Wajsman
photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--
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